New Way To Slice Aid Pie

Like a nest full of hungry baby birds, emerging democracies in Panama, Nicaragua and Eastern Europe have opened their beaks to the United States.

They need foreign aid, and it's in the U.S. interest to provide it. Though unpopular with many Americans, foreign aid helps promote global stability and security.

What's more, the United States has a responsibility to help Nicaragua and Panama in particular. U.S. policy played a part in wrecking their economies.

But the United States can't meet these challenges with its present approach to foreign aid.

Washington needs to be more creative, especially in finding new sources of foreign aid. That includes spending less on questionable military programs.

The main foreign aid dilemma is a limited pie. It's $14 billion this year and not likely to grow in this time of belt-tightening.

Because Congress earmarks most of the aid for certain countries, the United States is further restricted in responding to new appeals for help.

Some members of Congress and Mr. Bush support cutting the foreign aid pie into smaller pieces. They would do this by shaving a percentage off all earmarked aid and giving the savings to the emerging democracies.

But that approach would free up only a few hundred million dollars - a drop in the bucket because the needs of the emerging democracies run in the billions.

Clearly, the United States needs a bigger foreign aid pie. Money for that can come from the defense budget.

Already Mr. Bush is asking Congress to help Panama and Nicaragua by redirecting some anticipated savings from closing or reducing operations at some U.S. military bases.

The United States can afford to make these and other defense cuts precisely because of the diminishing threat to U.S. security in places such as Eastern Europe.

However, Mr. Bush isn't making full use of the opportunity he has here. For example, he stubbornly refuses to cut wasteful programs such as ''Star Wars''. In fact, he's pushing for a substantial increase over this year's $3.8 billion dollars for space-based defenses.

By slashing spending to $1 billion a year - all that's needed to keep pace with the Soviets' own research - billions of dollars would be made available for foreign aid and other programs.

Such sensible redirecting of defense dollars would help the United States tailor its foreign aid to a changing world.